The blog contains articles by the author which appear in various newspapers in Kashmir and are also available on the website: www.kashmirfirst.com

Saturday, September 17, 2016

The Curfewed Eid!

(Putting
the entire valley of Kashmir under curfew on the most important Muslim
religious festival of Eid-ul-Adah is the first event of its kind in the entire
recorded history of Kashmir!)

Eid-ul-Adah
is the most pious and revered festival in the Muslim world. It is in
remembrance to the symbolic sacrifice which God asked Prophet Ibrahim to offer.
Well, Kashmiris too have offered a similar symbolic sacrifice for their cause
on this occasion. Kashmir has seen many periods of extreme suppression during
its history of last four centuries. At one time the grand mosque of Kashmir,
Jama Masjid was locked, Pather Masjid was converted into a stable and many
mosques were locked. However, never ever were the people prevented from
celebrating the religious festival of Eid-ul-Adah! Not only were people during
the present time prevented from offering prayers in the main Eid Gah where
these prayers are usually held but no open congregations were allowed anywhere!

No
Eid prayers were allowed in the famous mosque of Hazratbal for the first time
in its recorded history. Similarly, no Eid prayers were allowed in the Sayed
Sahib’s mosque in Sonawar which is claimed to be a VIP mosque as most of the
top government functionaries usually offer prayers here. The mosque at Maqdoom
Sahib too was surrounded by security forces and no one was allowed inside. For
more than eight Fridays no prayers have been offered in the Jama Masjid, the
grand mosque of Srinagar. In spite of these extreme curbs, people at many
places took out marches for “Azadi” after Eid prayers in the local mosques
which were dispersed by use of force causing death of four persons and injuries
to scores of people. One is not able to get exact news as there is a total
communications blockade. All mobile phone networks have been shut. Mobile
internet is already off for more than two months and even the landline based
broadband internet has been shut down. This has resulted in total communication
blockade within Kashmir and with the outside world.

Incidentally,
these harshest measures on religious gatherings in Kashmir especially on the
occasion of the Eid have occurred when Kashmir is being ruled by Sayeds who
claim to be direct descendants of the companions of the prophet! 700 of these
are supposed to have accompanied Mir Sayed Ali Hamadani popularly known as
Shah-i-Hamadan when he came to Kashmir to preach Islam. One is here reminded of
a saying of the patron saint of Kashmir, “Malleh te Gosain yeli raj karan; trutte
wassan; yvethe phaton; draag wathon”! This translates into, “When Mullahs and
Sadhus become the rulers; cloud bursts will occur; rivers will be flooded and famines
will occur!” It seems so true now with the present ruling set up!

This
curfewed Eid appears to be the direct follow up of the Union Home Minister,
Rajnath Singh’s directive to security forces to restore normalcy within a
week’s time. His statement on the subject sounded as if he was ordering the
forces to crush all Kashmiris within a week! Thanks to the local government and
the security agencies, the Union Home Minister appeared to be totally unaware
of the ground situation. Yes, all the earlier uprisings in Kashmir used to be
mostly confined to the down town area of five to six police stations.
Imposition of strict curfew would restore virtual normalcy in a short time.
However, no one seems to have told the Home Minister that Kashmir has 5,000
villages and all the villagers are out on the roads! One is reminded of the
Chinese Revolution when Mao Tse Tung gave the slogan of surrounding the cities
by the villages! The earlier upheavals in Kashmir which emanated from the
downtown area of Srinagar could not reach any goal. However, this one which has
started from the villages may really achieve the ultimate goal!

According to NDTV and some other press
reports, the four districts of South Kashmir have been handed over to Army for
area domination. It is alleged that there is free movement of militants in the
area due to continuous civilian unrest and the counter insurgency operations
have come to a standstill. However, from Army’s own admission, the number of
militants is not even 100! The induction of a full-fledged division in addition
to already present thousands of troops of Border Security Force and the Central
Reserve Police Force to control a hundred odd militants amounts to killing a
fly with a sledge-hammer. It is only going to fuel more and more uprisings all
over the Valley and beyond. In fact, the
forces are not only forcibly dispersing peaceful gatherings but are also
vandalizing the residences of the people and beating the inmates to frighten
them. Allegedly as reported in the press, all over Kashmir forces have gone
into the villages, beaten the inmates, looted their valuables and damaged their
household goods just to cow them down. This has happened after the top
authorities have declared that the forces have been directed to exercise
maximum restraint! What would the unrestrained soldiers do? Burn down entire
Kashmir! The people ordering and directing this brutal suppression seem to be
ignorant about the history of Kashmiris.

Mehmud of Ghazni who attacked India 17 times
and destroyed the famous temple at Somnath was not able to enter Kashmir. His
forces could not subdue the Kashmiri garrison at Loran and had to retreat.
Alberuni accompanying him wrote about Kashmir in his memoirs sitting at Loran.
Even the Alexander’s Army could not penetrate and subdue Kashmiris. While
retreating some of the soldiers stayed back in the mountains surrounding
Kashmir. Their progeny are called Kailash on Pakistani side and Drokhpas on
this side. Mughal Armies of Akbar were defeated three times by Kashmiris. In
one of the attacks, the Mughal Army was so much harassed by the Kashmiri
Guerillas that they begged them to show them the way out of Kashmir! It was
only through treachery and collaborators that Mughals were able to annex
Kashmir to their Empire. Incidentally, Yaqub Shah, the son of the last ruler of
Kashmir Yusuf Shah fought a guerilla war against Mughal armies for six months
and was finally captured in Kishtwar. One may again remind these people bent
upon crushing Kashmiris about Kalhana’s saying, “The country of
Kashmir may be conquered by the force of spiritual merit, but not by the force
of soldiers!” Kashmiris are the most invincible people but at the same time
very tolerant and resilient!

A number of top Indian political leaders and writers have recently
opined that Indians have lost Kashmir even if it is still physically in their
possession! The physical possession of the world’s highest militarized area
does not necessarily mean emotional and psychological possession! So if Rajnath
Singh wants restoration of normalcy, he has to stop sending armies of soldiers
and extend a genuine and sincere hand of friendship to all the Kashmiris after
stopping all the brutal and harsh assaults and removing all undemocratic and
totalitarian curbs on freedom of expression even if the people are asking for
“Azadi”! An unconditional dialogue in a free and peaceful atmosphere is the
only way out of the impasse. The alternative is unthinkable destruction, both
for Kashmir and the entire sub-continent!